Alright, i'm going to open this up for discussion just b/c i'm bored at work and i've been thinking about it.

Right now i'm in a situation where i have two cars in front of me:

the civic and the dub

and i was curious as to what would be a better car to make the HPDE "hor"

The dub needs a lot of work, which i'm not as familiar with as my honda. But i'm in love with both cars and willing to learn to work on the dub. I also feel that the maintenance on the civic will be less, and parts easier to come by, then the dub (assumption).

Original plan was to make the mkII the daily to reduce costs on insurance, gas, and taxes while making the civic the secondary car and as a track car.

the '99 civic si has 127.5k miles on it (well maintained)
the '86 gti has 128.7k miles on it (planning for a vr6 swap when i get the tools/time/funds)

I'll be graduating from college in May as most of you know so hopefully i'll get a nice enough job to pay for most of the expenses. So far i've been using the Si mainly for reliability, that's why the gti has very few miles.

the civic weighs 2,552 lbs curb with full interior
the gti weighs an estimated 2,380 lbs curb with full interior.

Factors with this decision:
Insurance costs for daily driver
Maintenance costs
keeping the gti at all costs


The main thing i wanted to do was basically make the GTI to the way i want: vr6, body side moldings, suspension, and a paint job, with other slight modifications...etc (i will be doing this regardless of which one i track), then just using the civic as my toy (well both would be my toys) on the track....essentially a cosmetic beater.

Here are pictures and current mods of the cars:

-GC coilovers
-kyb shocks
-front/rear camber kits
-skunk2 SS
-exedy organic clutch
-skunk2 rear tie bar
-track wheels with azenis on them



-TT exhaust with borla muffler
-tear drop wheels that need to be painted


i also have several sets of wheels for track/winter/daily for both cars since they both have 4x100 bolt patterns, i just need spacers for the vw if i want to put anything more than the stock +38et

what do you guys think of the situation?

This kind of came about after the theft because i'm having thoughts of selling the civic after the insurance gets it back to me....just a thought.

Thanks for any opinions :thumbup:

edit: correct me if i'm wrong, but if i were to take the civic to competition after all the HPDE's...a long time from now...it would be in HC3 and if i were to take the dub it would be in Small Bore. Just trying to set things up if i were to keep both cars for the long-haul.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.carbotecheng.com/Winter_special.htm">http://www.carbotecheng.com/Winter_special.htm</a><!-- m -->

I think that what its going to come down to is a Miata or a Hatchcrapper with a B16 or B18 (vtec of course ) motor. I need something lighter and cheaper to own as well as easier to replace when I hit a large, immobile object - I cant justify the car/insurance payment on the ITR ($400/mo on both) to track it another year and if I put another 13k miles on it like I did last year the resale value will take a huge hit. I have cash to pay for something else, and being out of the car payment will be nice, so I can buy a truck down the road. Ideally I'd like to have less than $8k wrapped up in the track car just to do DE's with.

What do you guys think - I may be looking at the red miata this weekend, its < 2 hrs away from me.

Pros on both of them:

- Can use 15" tires (I have 12 good 205/50/15 r-tires sitting in my garage)
- Familiar with both cars
- Reasonably cheap to own/operate
- OPM Autosports is nearby if I need anything

Pros on the miata:

Example: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.specmiata.com/Classifieds/detail.php?siteid=2016">http://www.specmiata.com/Classifieds/de ... iteid=2016</a><!-- m --> ~$6k

- Can go to SM with a relatively small investment in $$ and time
- Resale values strong, especially for a built SM racer
- RWD
- Blast to drive
- Open top for the summertime, if I can tolerate the spec suspension on the street
- Stock LSD
- Easy on equipment
- Easily boosted, to feed my p-car rolling ego with (although more $$ but I could sell all my ITR parts to fund that)

Cons on the Miata

- No storage space, need a tire trailer
- Small inside
- Cant use my Evo2's, and custom mounting an Evo isnt cheap
- Somewhat slow, unless boosted

Pros on the Cibbic

Example: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1103222">http://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1103222</a><!-- m --> ~$5k

- I have a bunch of parts already (wheels, brake pads, revalved konis some spares)
- I like Hondas
- Vtec power to feed my p-car rolling ego with
- Lighter than a Miata
- Can use my Evo2's and probably my rollbar
- Can race ECHC H4/H5 with a d-series motor

Cons on the Cibbic

- FWD
- Theft magnet
- Will need to install a LSD
- Resale on IT/ECHC cars sucks real bad and much more expensive to prep
- Harder on tires/brakes
- Usual assortment of busted shit found on any 10+ y/o honda (like my 91 integra fiasco)
- Go-fast parts more expensive than a Miata (LSD and Final Drive would eat up $1200 of budget)

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kamikazenipponracer.be/a_media/angelo/civicdavdodu2.wmv">http://www.kamikazenipponracer.be/a_med ... vdodu2.wmv</a><!-- m -->

That thing took a lot of abuse! Its a d15.

I know where to go online to get parts for the Scooby and the Z - but where are you Ford folks getting your stuff from? Chad? Pete? Adam? Just curious if I've completely overlooked a top-notch online supplier...

Reground Flywheel



Old Clutch (but not worn out, still had about 50% life left on it )



Nice broke ass pressure plate



Engine exposed and a nice oil leak



Hose tie-up goodiness!



New clutch / pressure plate installed



Refreshed tranny with new TOB and throwout arm



Broken exhaust manifold studs are fun!!!



So far I have torn everything apart, installed a new clutch / TOB / pressure plate / main seal & carrier gasket, and reinstalled the transmission into the car. I also got a little over-confident with the breaker bar and broke an exhaust manifold stud (which may or may not get fixed depending on my laziness factor). Very time consuming job, although not all that hard. More pics to come later.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://streams.planet.nl/cgi-bin/reflector.cgi?dir=bbp&subdir=topgear&type=wmv&stream=013.wmv">http://streams.planet.nl/cgi-bin/reflec ... am=013.wmv</a><!-- m -->

pretty funny vid here

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/bananaphone.html

Which one of you bitches has been moonlighting as a Georgia resident?

On the way home from work yesterday, I saw a black Audi A4 with GA plates that read "MMSPRTS"

:!:

Part ugh

I still love the car... don't get me wrong. I'll start with just that...

Right before I left for california on dec 14th, I decided to paint my windshield wipers so they would no longer be that dreadful orange rusty color. I wasn't only going to paint them... I was going to plastidip them. I was going to do it right.

Well, while I was working in that mousehole of a workspace between the firewall and windshield, I was trying to get the lock nut off that holds the passenger wiper on. I tugged and tugged and finally it came off... along with all of the threads underneath. FUCK. So I painted the wipers and put the driver's wiper on and that worked, I began to scour rx7club for a parts car.

I left for cali knowing that when I got back, I'd have 4 days to fix this problem... sunday included.

In Cali, I found a guy who sent me the wiper rack for $25 shipped. Nice deal and he sent it to my house in Reston. When I got back, I was having a bad day. The airline lost my luggage, flights were delayed. It took me lots of running, yelling, and patience to get me from cali to NoVa in a whopping 14 hours. I got home just wanting to go for a drive in the car I hadn't seen for 3 weeks.

I got in and started it up. Awesome. I let the ebrake down and drove down my hill. I drove out of the neighborhood but noticed that the car slowed rather fast when I let off the gas. I tried coasting down a small hill not 100m from my house. The car came to a complete stop... but my foot was not on the brake. I got out to check and the rear right caliper was hot and smelled like it had seen a day at the track. Then, it started to rain. Slowly in first gear, I slowly dribbled my way back to my house and slammed hard on the brakes at the end in hopes of dislodging them. I went inside a broken man and fell asleep.

Part deux

Today, I called advance auto and found the caliper for 90 bucks and it would be there tomorrow. I drove to advance (after picking up my luggage that was miraculously at Dulles the whole time - thanks america west :evil: ) in a friend's car and found out that the guy had misinformed me on the phone. It would be here til saturday afternoon and with me having to leave sunday, it wasn't worth it. I left.... still a broken man.

I got home and started working on the windshield wipers... in the rain. Oh the irony! For ONCE, it all went smoothly. I put the wipers back together and they worked!!!! I decided to see if I could dislodge the caliper that had given me trouble. I took car out of gear and it started to roll!!! The final slam on the brakes last night had apparently dislodged the stubborn torture device and the wheel span freely!

Fin

My car works fine. No more stress. I'm unbroken.